An itinerant musician, poet, puppeteer, archer, showman and poet, and American exile in permanent residence in Brussels, McCloud Zicmuse conceived "Passé Composé Futur Conditionnel" during a trip on which he revisited the United States after an absence of 15 years.

Watch Gabriela Gonzalez' video for "Mystery Trail", a track recorded with Deerhoof's John Dieterich on guitar

New video by Lula Pena

"Archivo Pittoresco" released on January 27th. Here is one of the songs, in a new video beautifully directed by Catarina Limão.

We're very happy to announce Lula Pena's new album Archivo Pittoresco will be released on January 27th.

Pes Mou Mia Lexi was written by illustrious Greek composer Manos Hadjidakis: "The title means Give me the Word. I adopted it a few years ago, when Greece was the first EU country to experience economic collapse, and so we were all Greek, in a lexical world.” Lula Pena.

HOLIDAY GOODIES FROM CRAMMED DISCS

For all orders of minimum two CD albums and/or vinyl albums placed on the Crammed Discs shop before Jan. 15 !Please note the last day to place orders before the holiday break is Dec. 21 Orders placed after Dec. 21 will ship early January

AND THE PERFECT PRESENT FOR MUSIC LOVERS:

MINIMAL COMPACT "One (Statik Dancin')" ON VINYL AGAIN!

The vinyl reissue of Minimal Compact's debut mini-album (1981) comes out on Nov 18.
It's been remastered from the original tapes, pressed on 180 gr vinyl, and contains a download code.

Fronted by vocalist Samy Birnbach (aka DJ Morpheus, freestyle DJ extraordinaire and compiler of the Freezone series), Minimal Compact were one of the most inspirational bands of the '80s. They blended funky rock rhythms and incisive guitars with flavours from their native Middle East. The band were active from 1981 to 1988, and released 6 studio albums and a live album. They had a large and fanatic following all across Europe and the USA, where some of their tracks became underground club favourites.

KONONO N°1 & BATIDA say "Bom Dia"!

Les Inrockuptibles premiere the new video by Konono n°1 & Batida, and are dubbing them "Purveyors of Joy"....

The joyful music video illustrating this track from the new Konono n°1 album was shot by Catarina Limão (who is a.o. the VJ in the collective around Batida), during rehearsals for the common live show by the Congolese band and the Angolan-Portuguese electronic musician.

In the lyrics of the song, which mix Kikongo, Portuguese and French, Konono n°1 leader Augustin Mawangu imagines that he fortuitously meets some of his partners (his manager, the boss of his label…) in the streets of Brazil or Australia, reconverted into fish or banana vendors, following the collapse of the music industry… Premonitory vision, warning or plain fun? Future will tell…

WATER ON MARS

The first video for FAUNA TWIN's upcoming
THE HYDRA EP

Fauna Twin — the latest, exciting addition to the Crammed roster— are Parisian singer-songwriter Claire Jacquemard & North Wales’ Owain Ginsberg (leader of “Hippies Vs Ghosts” and “We Are Animal”). They’ve just put the finishing touch to their debut EP, the epic “The HYDRA EP”, which will be out in October with a string of shows around Europe. Fauna Twin’s debut album is scheduled for release in 2017.

Towards the end of last year, the band have circulated a couple of unfinished tracks which have elicited great reactions from the BBC6 and several online media across the UK, US and Canada, all obviously intoxicated by Fauna Twin’s melodies, atmospheres and dramatic percussions, and by the beauty of Claire’s voice.

This is how Fauna Twin describe their own music: “our influences are a massive tornado of different styles, from Queen to King Crimson, crossing by PJ Harvey, Fiona Apple via R. Stevie Moore to Radiohead. This leads us to a chameleon church with no god, where we commit everyday. Fauna Twin’s music turns into a kind of hybrid shoegazish-drama-pop with a special appeal for textures, structures and constructed rhythm sections.”

HAPPY SUMMER

New music by AQUASERGE, ACID ARAB, FAUNA TWIN, LE TON MITÉ and singles from the upcoming, 2017 albums by YASMINE HAMDAN and JUANA MOLINA: This is what will be awaiting you in the Fall!
Meanwhile, here is Aquaserge's intriguing new video, 'Les Zouzes'

New video by Flavien Berger x Véronique Vincent & Aksak Maboul

"Je pleure tout le temps"

Je pleure tout le temps (Contrelarme Version) was arranged and performed by French electropop wonder kid Flavien Berger for Véronique Vincent & Aksak Maboul's 16 Visions of Ex-Futur, an album of covers & reworks which comes out on October 14.

The majestic video was written & directed by Robin Lachenal (who has worked on Flavien Berger's remarkable previous 13 videos…), and was jointly produced by the artists' respective labels, Crammed Discs and Pan European Recording, along with video company Kidam.

Noteworthy trivia (as they say on movie sites) #1: the aerial shots were filmed from a drone flying among the high-rise buildings in La Défense area near Paris, which is a first. #2: the main character is played by Michel Dejeneffe, a puppeteer and ventriloquist who had his own, very popular TV shows in France & Belgium back in the 80s ("Tatayet").